🎾The Championships Wimbledon 2024: Week 1🎾

🎾Hello and welcome to The Championships - Wimbledon 2024.  One thread for all matches🎾

[Credit to the official Logo makers]

The Championships, commonly known simply as Wimbledon, is the oldest tennis tournament in the world and is widely regarded as the most prestigious. It has been held at the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club in Wimbledon, London, since 1877 and is played on outdoor grass courts, with retractable roofs over the two main courts since 2019.

Wimbledon is one of the four Grand Slam tournaments, the others being the Australian Open, the French Open, and the US Open. Wimbledon is the only major still played on grass, the traditional tennis playing surface. Also, it is the only Grand Slam that retains a night-time curfew, though matches can now continue until 11.00 pm under the lights.

The tournament traditionally takes place over two weeks in late June and early July, starting either on the last Monday in June or the first Monday in July and culminating with the Ladies' and Gentlemen's Singles Finals, scheduled for the Saturday and Sunday at the end of the second week. Five major events are held each year, with additional junior and invitational competitions also taking place. In 2009, Wimbledon's Centre Court was fitted with a retractable roof to lessen the loss of playing time due to rain. A roof was operational over No. 1 Court from 2019, when a number of other improvements were made, including adding cushioned seating, a table and 10 independently operable cameras per court to capture the games.

Wimbledon traditions include a strict all-white dress code for competitors, and royal patronage. Strawberries and cream are traditionally consumed at the tournament.  Unlike other tournaments, advertising is minimal and low key from official suppliers such as Slazenger and Rolex. The relationship with Slazenger is the world's longest-running sporting sponsorship, providing balls for the tournament since 1902.

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Wimbledon 2020 was cancelled, the first cancellation of the tournament since World War II. The rescheduled 134th edition was staged from 28 June 2021 to 11 July 2021. The 135th edition was played between 27 June 2022 and 10 July 2022, and regularly scheduled play occurred on the middle Sunday for the first time. It marked the centenary of the inaugural championships staged at the Centre Court. The ATP, ITF, and WTA did not award ranking points for the 2022 tournament, due to controversy over the tournament excluding players representing Russia and Belarus. The 2023 Wimbledon Championships was the 136th staging and ran from 3 July 2023 to 16 July 2023.

The 2024 Wimbledon Championships will be the 137th staging and will run from 1 July 2024 to 14 July 2024.

Demon on collision course with Djoker; star’s Wimbledon feud renewed: Aussie draw

The Polish star who ended Roger Federer’s glittering career at Wimbledon stands in the path of Alex de Minaur posting a career-best performance at the All England Club over the next fortnight, while Ajla Tomljanovic will renew hostilities with an old rival next week.

The Wimbledon draw, held in London on Friday, threw up a range of fascinating early encounters ahead of the start of the world’s most prestigious tournament on Monday, with ten Australian men and three women among the participants.

From living in a van to Wimbledon debut: the unlikely rise of Billy Harris

British No 5 had so little money at start of his professional career he travelled to low-tier events in a Ford Transit

How many players launch their careers out the back of a van? At this year’s Wimbledon, there may be only one. The British No 5, Billy Harris, who last week was awarded a wildcard to compete in the championships, has done it the hard way in reaching his first grand slam at the age of 29.

Ten years ago opportunities were limited. After progressing from juniors to the pro circuit, Harris lacked the cash to tackle tennis the way superstars of the game do. “At the start I didn’t have the money for flights every week,” Harris told the Lawn Tennis Association (LTA) last year. “So I thought: ‘Easiest way to get around Europe is on wheels.’”

Desperate to ignite his career, Harris bunged a mattress in the back of a Ford Transit van and set off to play in Europe, armed only with his racket-stringing machine, a portable cooker and a big appetite for matches. “Some weeks in the van were obviously colder than others,” Harris said of his first foray into the grinding world of the Futures tour, the lowest level of professional tennis.

“When I was in France – the first few weeks of being in the van – it was snowing and I’d be waking up and scraping the ice off the inside. It was a wake-up call that I had to get somewhere warmer quick.”

From northern France he drove to southern Spain, then from Portugal to Poland, sleeping with his van parked in McDonald’s car parks and cooking dinner on the roadside. Back then, the Isle of Man native’s world ranking was above 1,100. Beneath the glittering surface of grand slams are thousands of players grafting to make their way up the ladder. But not everyone can afford to climb it. “It’s a big decision to make,” says Harris’s close friend Julian Cash, an ATP Tour doubles player. “It showed the belief he had in himself, the belief his family had in him. It moulded his character to what he is now. That’s why he fights so hard – nothing’s been given to him.”

Don't want him to, but Djokovic might have to drop out. Has his upper-arm and shoulder  recovered already? 

Thank you for d thread Raji 

Originally posted by: rckRadhe

Don't want him to, but Djokovic might have to drop out. Has his upper-arm and shoulder  recovered already? 

Latest on Djokovic.

'I don't see myself holding back': 'Superhuman' Djokovic confirms Wimbledon comeback less than a month after surgery

Cheers..

https://www.instagram.com/reel/C812tOfMwKV/?igsh=MXh5cnk0bDZkdWIyag==

Qualifiers results 

There have been times over the past year when Marketa Vondrousova has been at home in Prague, and has caught sight of the three-quarters size replica of the Venus Rosewater Dish which all winners of the Ladies’ Singles receive… and smiled anew at the reminder that the events of 50 weeks ago were not a dream.  “I have the trophy at home and I’m like ‘Oh yeah, that happened!’” said the Czech left-hander on her return to the All England Club.  “I don’t think about myself as a Wimbledon champion. But then sometimes I’m like ‘Oh yeah – I won Wimbledon last year!’”

Vondrousova’s was one of the great surprise triumphs in SW19. Having never been beyond the third round here, she was ranked 42 in the world when she saw off Ons Jabeur in the final to become the first unseeded women’s champion of the Open Era. Small wonder that as she gazed around the packed Centre Court stands with the famous plate in her hands, her first remark was: “Tennis is crazy.”

How right she was. Just 12 months previously, with her playing wrist in a cast, she had come to London during the grass court season merely to cheer on friends in qualifying at Roehampton. Back then she wondered sadly if she would ever be able to reproduce her previous peak form as runner-up to Ash Barty at Roland-Garros in 2019.

Now, with Vondrousova’s name forever inscribed in gold letters on the honours board here, she feels unaltered by her landmark win.

MARKETA VONDROUSOVA: PRE-CHAMPIONSHIPS PRESS CONFERENCE

“I don’t think it should change you as a person,” mused the No.6 seed. “It was an amazing two weeks but I didn’t change a lot. It’s more for the people around you. They look at you differently at the tournaments and everything. But I’m just thinking about me as Marketa.”

Following tradition, she will of course commence her title defence in the opening match of Tuesday’s action on Centre Court. Across the net will be Spain’s Jessica Bouzas Maneiro, world ranked No.83, for whom it will be a memorable Grand Slam main draw debut no matter what the outcome.

Vondrousova’s build-up has not quite been ideal. Facing Anna Kalinskaya on the Berlin grass just two weeks ago, she slipped during a split-step and fell, jarring her right hip so badly that two games later she pulled out.

REIGNING CHAMPION MARKETA VONDROUSOVA PREVIEWS WIMBLEDON 2024

“It’s fine now,” she said reassuringly. “It was really scary and I didn’t play for a couple of days. But I arrived here Wednesday and I’ve had a couple of great practices. I’m feeling good and I hope it's going to be okay. I can’t wait to be back on Centre Court.”

Looking back, she thinks the key to her victory last year was – as for so many – learning to move better on the surface. She had no idea at the time that she was bidding to be the seventh different women’s champion in as many years.

“I didn't really think of winning the tournament before the semi-finals,” she pondered, and then rapidly reassessed to add: “I think my first thought of winning the tournament was when I broke Ons in the second set for 5-4 and served for the match.”

Funnily enough, Vondrousova isn’t all that keen on the idea of an eighth different consecutive champion this year. She probably prefers an alternative statistic. So far in 2024, Aryna Sabalenka and Iga Swiatek have successfully defended their Grand Slam crowns.

No doubt Vondrousova is all in favour of continuing that trend, although given that she has not reached another final in the intervening 12 months, she is once again viewed as a long shot.

“I don’t think you can feel stress-free as No.6 in the world,” she acknowledged. “Now people are watching you more, expecting you to play semis or finals in every tournament. I don't think that's possible.

“But women’s tennis and the women’s draw is really open these days. Matches are really tough, even in the first round. I think we can expect many surprises. On the grass courts, you never know what's going to happen.”